


Love Is...

by kiss_me_cassie



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Introspection, POV Clint Barton, Quote: Love is for children
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-10
Updated: 2016-03-10
Packaged: 2018-05-25 21:55:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6211711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiss_me_cassie/pseuds/kiss_me_cassie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wonderings on love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love Is...

Love is for children. 

He's heard her say it many times. Angrily, playfully, stoically. With questioning hope and with self-deprecating humor. In pain and in jest. As the most matter-of-fact thing in the world. 

She's said it to marks during interrogations and targets in the midst of missions. She's said it to him during eerily quiet fights and while twined seductively around him in bed. She's said it to others in casual conversation and during soul-wrenching confessions.

He's heard her say it myriad times, in myriad ways.

But he's never sure if she herself believes the doctrine that was drilled into her as a child. He's never sure if she wants it to be true or if she wishes it were a lie. 

Love is for children. 

She may or may not know the truth, but he does.

\---

Love _is_ for children.

Because it can't be this clawing ache inside him. To know everything there is to know about her, good or bad. To soothe her fears, whether they be real or imaginary. To figure out what makes her happiest, and what angers her even more. To just be with her, all the time. To show her that she is of value: to him, the team, the world at large.

It cannot be this burning need, this lust, this desire to touch her and be touched by her. To feel her, taste her, experience her in every way. To lose himself within her. To be as close to one another as humanly possible, and then even closer.

It can't be this hard knot of fear, the paralysis that overcomes him when he can't be there to save her. No, not save. She doesn't need saving, she never has. But to be there for her, to let her know that she is not alone, that he has her back. That he always will, until death do they part.

\---

Love is for children. 

He knows this is true. Because surely love can't be any of these things. Whatever this is, it isn't love. This is far more than could possibly be called love.


End file.
